


Curiouser and Curiouser

by mcgarrygirl78



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/M, Friendship, Humor, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-11
Updated: 2014-10-11
Packaged: 2018-02-20 17:27:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2436902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcgarrygirl78/pseuds/mcgarrygirl78
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“If you think that then you must know as much about yourself as I do, which is next to nothing.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Curiouser and Curiouser

Emily ignored the chill as she sat on the concrete steps at the Days Inn. Blowing the poison out of her lungs, she looked up at the starry night. It was so beautiful…how could something so atrocious happen right beneath it. What kind of monster strangled the life out of teenage girls? Who stole their innocence before watching the light fade from their eyes? Who dumped them on the side of the road as if their lives meant nothing? 

 

Emily sighed, taking a pull on her beer. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to get the look of the last victim out of her mind. A rainstorm washed away any trace of evidence. They found her naked, in brush near the outskirts of town. She was lying on her stomach but her face tilted upward as if she were waiting for them. She had clearly been posed. Her name was Amber Sheldon, missing for 17 days but dead less than a week. She was 14 years old.

 

“It’s cold out here.”

 

The voice startled her but she didn’t look anywhere but ahead. Emily wasn’t in the mood for company…maybe if she kept quiet he would go away.

 

“Put the jacket on.” He dangled it in front of her, careful not to catch it on her cigarette.

 

“I'm fine, Hotch.” Emily didn’t bother to hide her exasperated tone.

 

The Unit Chief sighed, sitting on the step above her. For a while he didn’t say anything. He just watched her. This case was really getting to her. Of course it would get to anyone but Emily actually walked away from that last scene. 

 

Over three years in and he had never seen Prentiss lose it like that. Well, she didn’t exactly lose it; someone who compartmentalized as much as she did just wouldn’t. But she was clearly disturbed and quickly stepped away. Hotch’s first instinct was to go after her but he instead focused on the victim. Morgan went and they came back together 15 minutes later. Prentiss offered no apologies but was all business after that. 

 

Hotch also noticed she hadn’t looked him in the eye since that moment. Damn, he thought they moved passed that. Something always seemed to put an obstacle between them. It was why he came and sat with her tonight. Hotch knew she had been out there alone for a while; he didn’t like it. They were a team, a family, and they were there for each other. Even if the person didn’t want help, or thought they didn’t need it…family pressed. 

 

Family refused to let you suffer alone. Family took punches and sometimes even bullets. Family was everything. He watched her flick away one cigarette and light another. That was definitely a sign that she was not OK. He knew Prentiss smoked one clove at the end of the day. It brought her down with her Lady Grey or Sleepy Time tea. Hotch never saw her smoke two before.

 

“You’re not fine.” He spoke softly, second guessing putting his hand on her shoulder and finally deciding against it. One didn’t need to be a body language expert to see that that clove, which smelled of cherry vanilla, did nothing for her tension.

 

“My father and I always talk about getting on our bikes and driving cross country.” Emily said. Her voice sounded far away in her ears. “There is such beauty in this world, some of it right here in Independence, Missouri. We want to see it. We’ve both seen such ugliness…don’t we deserve to see the beauty?”

 

“Of course you do.” Hotch replied.

 

“We keep pushing it off, saying next year next year, but how do we even know life is promised to us next year? Tomorrow isn’t even a promise. I mean, take those girls for example. They were fourteen, thirteen, and fifteen, Hotch. Surely they believed they at least had tomorrow.”

 

“I'm sure they did.”

 

“I have six weeks vacation you know. I have six weeks built up and turned over. I need to take some time…we need to take some time.”

 

“Yeah.” he nodded. “What are you smoking?”

 

“Don’t lecture me.” Her tone was defensive.

 

“That wasn’t my intent. I was asking out of curiosity.”

 

“Curiosity?” The word made her turn and look at him. It only lasted a moment; she went back to staring at the stars.

 

“What? Why did you give me that look? You act as if I've never been curious before.”

 

“I'm sure you have but you can't say it’s a trait you show with any frequency.”

 

“I'm curious about a lot of things.” Hotch said.

 

“Name five.” Emily replied.

 

“Soap operas, definitely; extreme sports, disco music, Voltaire…”

 

“That’s four.”

 

“I wasn’t done yet.”

 

“Clearly, because that’s only four.”

 

“You make me curious, Emily.” He said.

 

“I'm pretty straightforward.” She said, taking a deep inhale of the clove.

 

“If you think that then you must know as much about yourself as I do, which is next to nothing.”

 

“I doubt that, Hotch, you're a profiler. You probably know more than you think or acknowledge.”

 

Hotch nodded but Emily couldn’t see that. A chill ran through her, early May in Missouri still had chilly nights. Whether she liked it or not, Hotch draped the FBI jacket over her shoulders. Without a word, Emily slipped her arms through and zipped it.

 

“We’re not supposed to profile each other,” he said. “Its one of the rules.”

 

“Sometimes there are too many damn rules.”

 

Taking one more drag, inhaling deeply, Emily flicked away what was left of the clove. She blew out the smoke, stealing another glance at Hotch before going back to the sky. It really was a beautiful night. It was a night that four teenaged girls would never see again. It was a night when two that were missing might meet the same fate. That was just in Independence…there were thousands of missing and mistreated young teens everywhere.

 

“What jarred you so much at the last crime scene?” Hotch asked.

 

“Hmm?”

 

Hotch knew that was a stall tactic; she’d heard him perfectly.

 

“What jarred you at the crime scene?”

 

“Nothing. Well it wasn’t…I'm fine, Hotch. I can handle the case.”

 

“I know that, I just…” he sighed but didn’t go on. “Why is that when we don’t talk we do so well but when we talk it doesn’t go as either of us planned?”

 

“When don’t we talk?” Emily asked.

 

“I mean working together in the field; we work so well together in the field. That doesn’t require any talking…we read each other’s bodies.”

 

“Oh, that’s definitely against the rules.”

 

“That’s not exactly what I meant.”

 

“It’s true though, we are really good at reading each other’s bodies.”

 

“Emily…”

 

“Yeah, that’s not what you meant.” Clove #3 came out and she lit it. Oh God, she didn’t want it to be one of those nights. It was quickly turning into one of those nights. She only had herself to blame for twisting Hotch’s words. He was never going to say what she wanted to hear.

 

“Put that out.” Hotch moved down on the step next to her and took the clove.  He flicked it into the rocks below. “Smoking is hazardous for your health.”

 

“Thanks, Dad.” Emily smirked, turning to look at him. She wanted to look away but the pull of his hazel eyes was too intense. Hotch took her face in his hands, leaning forward and giving her Eskimo kisses. “Hotch…”

 

“I want to stop. I want to stop thinking about you, reaching out for you, needing you.”

 

“Why?” her hand stroked the back of his hand.

 

“It’d be easier.” Hotch closed his eyes.

 

“I've never known you to back down from a challenge.”

 

“If I surrender to this feeling it will consume me, Emily; swallow me whole.”

 

Emily captured his lips in a deep, passionate kiss. Hotch moaned, it sounded painful, pulling her closer to him. Yes, oh God yes, it felt as good as he remembered. Hotch knew there was a reason he’d been avoiding this for so long. It would be impossible to ever kick such a powerful drug. All Hotch had been doing for nearly a year was avoidance. Deep down he suspected his plan was futile but didn’t know what else to do.

 

“You're trembling,” Hotch whispered against her soft lips. “We should go inside.”

 

“It has nothing to do with the weather.” Emily replied.

 

“We should go inside anyway.”

 

He didn’t want anyone to catch them. If they were discovered, Hotch would have no choice but to go back into his corner alone. He didn’t want to make the hard, wrong decision tonight…the right one was so easy. Emily stood from the step, reaching down to pick up the empty beer bottle. Then she held out her hand. Hotch took it without hesitation. 

 

He didn’t know what waited for him behind the door of her hotel room. He just knew he was tired of running. Why would anyone run from her love, her arms, and her touch? Aaron Hotchner wasn’t as smart as he looked sometimes. Thankfully, Emily Prentiss was smarter.

 

“I want to talk about what's bothering me.” She said. They were behind her door now, standing in the middle of the floor in each other’s arms.

 

“I will listen to every word.” He replied, nuzzling her hair and her temple. “I'm not letting go of you.”

 

Emily closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and leading him toward the bed. She didn’t know how it was going to end but knew this was her last chance. She wasn’t letting go either. Not in a million years.

 

***

                                                                                                                                           

  
 


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